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Battlefield 3 Multiplayer thread

No, thought not, me either. In fact I am pretty confident that I will probably never even load it up - I certainly didn't for BC2.

So having had access for the last day or so to the BF3 mp, this is the thread for all things related thus.

A few thoughts:

1) I think I have been fortunate as, not only have I had no issues installing, loading or starting the game, but it has been perfectly stable throughout the 8 or so hours I have put into it and I have had no issue finding and entering multiplayer games.

2) I actually like the server browser! It works well and certainly seems the least buggy and most useful browser DICE have ever launched with. That said, the ping info seems a little off sometimes, but I am sure this will smooth out.

3) Netcode on the whole seems very solid - still get the odd game where I start "rubber-banding" a bit, but given I have been playing on mostly Russian or Eastern European servers and I am based in the Middle East, it has been pretty good.

4) Gameplay itself is pretty chaotic and seems far more brutal than BC2 - bullets and explsives are certainly more lethal and the general level of teamwork is about what you would expect from a newly launch BF game, i.e somewhere between zero and not much. That said, it is a hell of a lot of fun and incredibly intense.

5) Classes? Well the engineer seems very popular and indeed I have played mostly as this class. Trying to get into support now with the C4 and ammo drops...having a little trouble getting lethal with the support class LMGs - they are very hard to use unless you are on the bipod or have the grip (I am assuming as I don't have this yet!) but fun to play. Snipers are still ubiquitous and annoying. Screw you snipers. Yeah, you - I'm talking to you.

6) It looks and sounds incredible. I am playing on a fairly beefy rig - OC'd 2500k, 8Gb and 2x GTX570 in Sli and I have the game running on Ultra with VSync at a solid 60fps. There is a noticable jump in the overall fidelity and fine detail from the demo and the little touches in the lighting, reflections and weather effects really make the game pop.

I would hope that perhaps an RPS server will appear at some point? If so, hope to catch you online.

I will probably buy this game with the money I get for my birthday in February (this or the Witcher 2), and I am looking forward to it, now that I resolved the performance problems with my PC and can run BC2 fine again 0_o.

5) Classes? Well the engineer seems very popular and indeed I have played mostly as this class. Trying to get into support now with the C4 and ammo drops...having a little trouble getting lethal with the support class LMGs - they are very hard to use unless you are on the bipod or have the grip (I am assuming as I don't have this yet!) but fun to play. Snipers are still ubiquitous and annoying. Screw you snipers. Yeah, you - I'm talking to you.

Bwegh - Snipers are the most annoying people in existence. Not because they can pick you off at any distance, but becasue that there are so many people sitting back and doing snipy stuff whilst they should be closer to the frontlines and throwing motion sensors. And be spotting... You know, using the recon class for recon. By the way, can you give the Recon a close quarters combat weapon?

Bwegh - Snipers are the most annoying people in existence. Not because they can pick you off at any distance, but becasue that there are so many people sitting back and doing snipy stuff whilst they should be closer to the frontlines and throwing motion sensors. And be spotting... You know, using the recon class for recon. By the way, can you give the Recon a close quarters combat weapon?

They sure are. I do like the scope glint effect, which seems to have been toned down since beta, but still gives you a fighting chance at spotting the buggers across the map.

That said, the ability to go prone, although mostly welcome, makes it pretty difficult to hit them.

Not sure about the sniper kit, but I have been shot with a seemingly large variety of different guns weilded by various snipers, so I think you can equip effective close range weapons.

Similarly to BC2 all classes have weapons specific to them, but there are general weapons that can be used by any class. The first you get is a shotgun at rank 1, then a PP7 at rank 7 or so. I prefer playing a close quarters recon, Can't stand sniper stalemates.

I've really enjoyed it so far. I love all the unlocks, its a bit addictive in a WoW kind of fashion. Oh if I just play a bit longer I get a silencer for my m416...

My minor niggles are the chopper/jets controls seem a little less tight than in BC2, parachutes now seem to deploy rather late and can't be used to jump off buildings - which is realistic but annoying when you just want to get down somewhere quick.

I installed the new nvidia patch and sometimes get issues when going from the game loading screen into the game itself, I end up with the top 3rd of the screen with a black horizon on it forcing a quit/reload or play on with just 2/3rds

Other than that its great, the action can be amazing especially on the night map where you see tracers flying everywhere - Huge firefights are a sight to behold.

battlelog can fuck right off until it lets me limit my searches by ping.

Yeah, that is a bit strange. Although it did a good job in pre-filtering and showing me only servers with acceptable pings so far, so no complaint there.

Apart from that, I really like the idea. Yeah, I think I like Battlelog. Much better than some half-ass server-browser built into the game. So much more overview, so much space and functionality. Being able to use multiple tabs is nice as well.

I think people will get used to it and most won't want to look back.

To the game itself:
Wow, it's intense. And lot's of space to sneak around and flank people. Confusingly large maps, lots of places to hide. And fucking snipers. Always them snipers. Cowards, all of them.

Apart from that, I really like the idea. Yeah, I think I like Battlelog. Much better than some half-ass server-browser built into the game. So much more overview, so much space and functionality. Being able to use multiple tabs is nice as well.

Yeah, during the beta I was like server browser seriously? But after a day or so BF3 utilizing your web browser makes a lot of sense given how much more optimised they are, plus being able to have loads of tabs open is great.

Wow, it's intense. And lot's of space to sneak around and flank people. Confusingly large maps, lots of places to hide. And fucking snipers. Always them snipers. Cowards, all of them.

I've been having a blast so far - seems very stable and netcode is the bee's knees. I wish I could filter by max players, though, so I can conveniently play a large game. My process is:

Refresh list
quickly click sort by number of players twice in order to see all 64-player servers at the top
scroll down to the ONE server on the list with a 64 player cap but that isn't full
click join server and find out that it's full.
repeat.

Seriously, there must be an easier way to join an active 64-player server. What am I doing wrong?

It's not made abundantly clear, and you may already know this, but if you go into the kit select screen, you can unequip the stock scope for all sniper rifles, even the bolt action ones. This allows you to look down the iron sights. With the starter rifle, it's 3 shots to kill. Seeing as you have to use your iron sight, you have to get closer into the action, but you can still use your distance advantage. It's what I did for a lot of the time in the alpha.

I cannot wait to join you guys, but I won't be free to play for about another week and a few days :(

It's not made abundantly clear, and you may already know this, but if you go into the kit select screen, you can unequip the stock scope for all sniper rifles, even the bolt action ones. This allows you to look down the iron sights. With the starter rifle, it's 3 shots to kill. Seeing as you have to use your iron sight, you have to get closer into the action, but you can still use your distance advantage. It's what I did for a lot of the time in the alpha.

Oooooooooh. I don't have or intend to get BF3, but that's an option that needs to be in more games. In CoD3 I got quite good with the Kar98 (which was the slowest firing non-scoped weapon in the game by a very long way) and wished more games gave me that experience. BC2 had stuff like the G3 but you still fired fast fast fast to get multiple shots in, the Kar98 you had to kill with your first or definitely your second or else.

Still comes up with 32 player games for some reason... No matter - it is still possible to find the games you want. And probably unfair to skip the game over server browser concerns. The browser is adequate, and fast, and will presumably be easy to upgrade, as it's a website.

There are so many unlocks in this game, I've barely made a dent in the 5-or-so hours I've been at the multiplayer.

Browser tip: set up your filters, refresh, then keep scrolling to the bottom until you run out of new servers. I get a LOT more games to show up this way. Either it shows just a few by default, or it's just a very slow refresh (which wouldn't surprise me).